The Hypocrite Hunter
by Rose and Tora
Summary: The Reikai Tantei make their opinions on various topics known. Co-written by Rose and Tora, rated for language and subject matter. SHOUNEN AI/YAOI.
1. The Online Dictionary

**Disclaimer:** Neither of the authors own or make any claim whatsoever upon Yu Yu Hakusho and the events and characters of the aforementioned series. This is a non-profit endeavor and is in no way, shape, or form associated with or endorsed by the copyright holders.  Additionally, we do not own (or claim to own) the website mentioned in this story.  If we did own it we would make sure that the management understood how to run the site without offending the users.

**The Hypocrite Hunter**

**Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora**

"Oi, Urameshi, check this out!" Kuwabara yelled, heedless of the fact that the person the statement was directed at was less than three meters away from him.

"What now, baka?" Yuusuke demanded, moving so he could see the computer's screen over Kuwabara's shoulder. Kuwabara pointed at a line of text at the top of whatever page he was at.

"Look, they've got a dictionary now!"

Kurama looked up from the book he was reading. "Who's got a dictionary?"

"That one fanfiction site that Kuwabara's always on," Yuusuke said. "The one that has the instant messenger feature."

"Used to have the instant messaging feature. They just removed it," Kuwabara muttered. "It never worked properly anyways."

"They removed the IM?" Kurama asked, putting his book aside and joining Yuusuke in leaning over Kuwabara's shoulder. "What's their excuse for that?"

"Limited resources that they want to use on developing core services, whatever the hell that's supposed to mean," Yuusuke said. Kurama frowned.

"Having a dictionary on the site really doesn't seem like a core service," he said, brushing a strand of hair from his face. "After all, there're plenty of dictionary sites online."

"Well, maybe this one's better than the rest. It's got a thesaurus too, so it must be good!" Kuwabara declared, clicking the link with an air of determination.

*********

Half an hour and approximately fifteen searches of the wondrous dictionary later, Kuwabara was irate. "How on Earth can they not have kisama in there? Or teme yarou? Or even baka?"

Kurama sighed. "The site's in English, Kuwabara-kun. Maybe if you try searching for something in English instead of Japanese it'll come up with something."

"Why don't you try 'huggle,' Kuwabara?" Yuusuke said, leering at the larger teen suggestively.

"URAMESHI!" Kuwabara yelled, turning a shade of red neither of the other two had ever seen on a human before. Yuusuke shrugged, and Kuwabara entered the word.

"It's probably not even in there, considering I've never heard anyone but you use it. Speaking of which, did you ever get a chance to 'huggle' with Yukina?"

"URAMESHI!"

"Guess not," Yuusuke muttered, causing Kuwabara to flush again.

"Um, guys? It would seem that 'huggle' is really a word according to this dictionary," Kurama said, pointing to the line of text that stated the word's definition.

"'To hug'? Jeez, I bet that took a lot of effort to figure out," Yuusuke said. "Hey, what are you looking up now?"

"Fuck," Kuwabara said.

"Now that was entirely uncalled for, Kuwabara," Yuusuke said, looking totally affronted.

"You asked what I was looking up, Urameshi!" Kuwabara said, highlighting the word he had just entered. Yuusuke looked sheepish, and Kurama simply sighed.

"Kuwabara, it's unlikely that word is going to be--what the hell? It's in there?" the kitsune-turned-ningen demanded, staring at the screen in disbelief. "And there's thirty-two synonyms listed? Absolutely unbelievable. And this is provided by the people who want to remove all NC-17 stories from their site."

"So you're saying that they're hippogriffs?" Kuwabara asked, brow furrowed in concentration.

"The word is 'hypocrites,' Kuwabara," Yuusuke interjected.

"Whatever," the other teen muttered, typing in something else. "Hey, Kurama, here's something for you and Hiei!" 

Kurama quirked an eyebrow at him. "Kuwabara, I doubt I need to know the definition of homosexual."

"Probably not, but there's a ton of other words that mean the same thing listed!" Kuwabara pointed to the list at the bottom of the page, and Kurama's eyes narrowed dangerously as he read it.

"Butch? Chicken? Dyke? Faggot? Fairy? Fruit? Pansy? Where the hell did they get all of these?"

"Where did who get all of what?" Hiei's unmistakable voice asked from the general vicinity of Kurama's elbow.

"That one fanfiction site has a dictionary now, and Kurama's steamed about the list of synonyms for homosexual," Yuusuke explained. Hiei frowned slightly.

"What's wrong with calling someone homosexual if they are?"

Kurama sighed and pointed to the list. "Nothing, but this particular site seems to be saying that calling someone who is gay a fairy, pansy, or faggot is acceptable."

Hiei glowered. "Stupid ningens. Never can figure out what they mean."

"And there it goes, the mighty hypocrite! Native to fanfiction sites worldwide, it has a nasty habit of lurking in the shadows and jumping up to bite you in the arse when you least expect it!" Yuusuke declared, doing his best to speak with an Australian accent.

Kuwabara frowned, clicking on a drop-down menu and scrolling down when the page loaded. "I thought so . . . They're violating their own Terms of Service. That thesaurus is defamatory against gays and lesbians." The ningen paused. "You know . . . just for shits and giggles . . ." The others leaned closer as he clicked back to the dictionary and began to type in another word.

"Heterosexual?" Yuusuke frowned. "Why are you looking that up?"

"To see if it's the same case as homosexual, with all the derisive synonyms." He clicked enter and they waited for the screen to load. "Carnal, epicurean, erogenous . . . What the heck are all these??"

Kurama frowned. "It looks like they're all synonyms for sensual . . . How are homosexuals NOT sensual??"

Kuwabara made a face. "Too much information . . ." 

He was promptly punched by Hiei. "That's not what he meant, moron. He meant that it's weird that heterosexuals are considered sensual, which is a positive term, while homosexuals are considered 'queens', which is a negative term that borders on insulting. This shows quite a bit of bias on the part of the people running this fanfiction site."

Yuusuke nodded. "That IS weird. And notice how bisexual is considered an antonym for homosexual, but is also in the synonyms list. That's hypocritical in itself!"

Kurama scowled. "What makes me even angrier is that one of the synonyms is 'invert'! As in 'reverse'. That's very insulting. I certainly didn't reverse any sort of feelings!"

Hiei frowned and put a hand on his lover's shoulder. He stiffened slightly as Kurama hugged him, unused to showing affection in public, but quickly relaxed. "Calm down, Fox. Getting worked up about it isn't going to help. Maybe we should send an email."

"Won't work," Kuwabara mumbled, clicking another link. "That's weird . . . gunsel has no definition . . . and all it says under punk about sexually related things is that a punk is a prostitute . . ."

"What?!" Hiei glared at the computer screen and moved from Kurama's arms. "Are they TRYING to alienate half of their users??"

Yuusuke glanced at him. "What do you mean?"

Hiei glanced at Kurama, who answered for him. "From what we can tell, a good portion of the people who write fanfiction ARE homosexual, bisexual, or at least supportive of same-sex relationships." 

Yuusuke stared at the two. "You guys did a STUDY??"

Hiei scowled. "Not really. Just look at all the yaoi and shonen ai fanfiction out there, and the lack of anti-yaoi sentiment . . . Well, almost all anti-yaoi sentiment. There was an incident a while back with an anti-yaoi spammer, but that seems to happen only every so often, and with the number of people who responded in support of yaoi, it's obvious that there's a lot of tolerance and acceptance in the fanfiction world. If people don't read or like it, they at least respect other people's right to write, read, and like it."

Kuwabara unglued his eyes from the computer screen. "I'd have to agree there. Heck, shonen ai fanfiction can be pretty good, sometimes. I was actually kinda homophobic before I read fanfiction, but now I'm fine with it. I really think these synonyms are very insulting. I'm tempted to stop visiting this site and go elsewhere."

Kurama scowled, his expression mirroring Hiei's. "Well, I USED to go there, but maybe I won't anymore."

"Hn. I wouldn't do that." The others glanced at him in surprise. Hiei regarded them impassively. "If we give in, they win. They'll have succeeded in silencing the dissenters."

Yuusuke nodded thoughtfully, then smirked. "Never give up! Never surrender!"

Hiei scowled. "Quit it. The 'Crocodile Hunter' impression was bad enough without the 'Galaxy Quest' quote."

Kuwabara stared. "Since when are you pop-culture literate?"

"Since I started dragging him to movies," Kurama said lightly. "And we have cable at home."

"Oh . . ."

Yuusuke shot the lovers an envious look. "Lucky. Cable's one thing that I haven't been able to convince Mom to get. Her soaps are all on the local channels, so she doesn't care."

Kuwabara grinned, logging offline and shutting down the computer. "Speaking of movies, do you guys wanna hit the matinee? There should be SOMETHING good playing."

Kurama smiled. "Sounds good. Guy night?"

"Hn." Hiei shrugged. "Fine by me.

Yuusuke grinned. "Cool! Let's go!"

And the four friends left together.

*********

**Authors' notes:**  The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'.  We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored.  We do not agree with a number of policies that the mentioned website has, and we are using this as a means of making our disagreement with them known.  Also, we would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and listen to our opinions.


	2. The Bloodgiving Incident

**Disclaimer:** Neither of the authors own or make any claim whatsoever upon Yu Yu Hakusho and the events and characters of the aforementioned series. This is a non-profit endeavor and is in no way, shape, or form associated with or endorsed by the copyright holders. Additionally, we do not own (or claim to own) the organization(s) mentioned in this story. If we did own it we would make sure that policies were non-discriminatory.

**The Hypocrite Hunter**

Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora

_Chapter Two_  
Hiei scowled. "Why are we here again?"

Kurama smiled patiently. "Yuusuke, Kuwabara, and I are going to give blood."

"For what?"

Yuusuke grinned slightly. "There's a blood shortage in the 'States, apparently, and the Red Cross set up a special thing so we can give blood."

Hiei looked perplexed. "Why? Do Americans drink blood or something?" Yuusuke dissolved in giggles at the statement, annoying the fire demon.

Kuwabara ended up answering. "No. They use it for operations and stuff when humans get hurt."

"And why are you dragging me along?"

Yuusuke snickered again. "For Kurama's emotional support." He yelped as the redhead whacked him.

"Quiet, or I'll sic Keiko on you." The fox grinned at his diminutive lover. "Besides, we're all going out for a decent meal afterwards, and you wouldn't want to miss that, would you?"

"Hn. I might."

Kurama just grinned. "Too bad."

"Hn." There was a slight inflection in Hiei's voice that let Kurama know he didn't really mind.

They walked up to the first table, and the petite American woman that was sitting there smiled at them. "I take it you want to give blood?" Kurama opened his mouth as if to reply, but the woman didn't wait for an answer, shoving paperwork in their hands. "Just fill out the paperwork and we'll be right with you. Make sure to read the requirements."

"Anou . . ." Kurama took the papers the woman had shoved at Hiei. "He's not giving blood."

The woman gave them a fierce look that would have frightened them had they not been used to them. "And why is that?"

Kurama glanced at the sheet with requirements, noticing one right off the bat that fit Hiei. "He doesn't meet the minimum weight requirement [1]." The woman nodded curtly and took the paperwork back.

The Tantei headed toward a cluster of seats. Yuusuke scowled. "That old bat was persistent."

Kurama shrugged. "They want blood."

"I've met gaki [2] that were more polite," Hiei muttered.

Yuusuke giggled again and put on a false petulant voice. "Excuse me, little one, would you mind if I sucked your blood for a while? No? Well then, would you object to me eating your soul? Hey, put that sword do--" Hiei backhanded Yuusuke in the solar plexus and glared at Kuwabara, who was chortling helplessly.

Kurama smiled at the boys' antics and put a calming hand on Hiei's shoulder. "Let's just fill out this paperwork so we can get this over with." They sat in a small cluster of chairs, pulling them slightly away from the other people filling out paperwork.

Hiei took the page of requirements and read it over as the others began to fill out the paperwork. The fire demon's eyes widened slightly as he read, then re-read a line. "Kurama . . . It says here that you can't donate blood," he said softly. The others looked up, surprised.

"What? Show me." Kurama leaned over to look at the line Hiei was pointing at. "'Volunteers with the following conditions cannot donate blood:' . . . 'A man who has had sex with another man since 1977.' [3]" The fox's green eyes widened. "What the . . .?"

Kuwabara flipped through the form he was filling out, his own eyes widening as well. "'Have you had sex with another male, even once, since 1977?' [4]" He frowned. "I wonder why . . ."

Yuusuke scowled, reading the requirements page over Hiei's shoulder. "I bet they consider it a form of 'Participation in high-risk activity for AIDS.'" He glared at the page. "They screen the blood anyway, so what does it matter?!"

Kurama sighed softly. "And it's not even valid anymore. I've heard that the new high-risk group for AIDS is heterosexual women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one [5]. They're using outdated information--from 1989 [6]."

Hiei looked slightly confused. "What the hell is AIDS?"

"It's a disease that ruins the immune system. There's no cure. It's mostly transmitted sexually." Kurama seemed shocked.

The fire demon frowned. "But you don't have any sort of disease. So what's the problem?"

Kuwabara scowled. "There's only one problem: homophobia. This whole AIDS scare bull shit is just a cover-up for discrimination." Kurama got up and walked to the table, followed by the others, handing the woman the partially-finished forms.

She frowned. "You didn't finish filling the forms out, ma'am."

Kurama's eyes narrowed. "First of all, I am male. And I didn't complete the forms because it'd be a waste of my time, considering that I'm not allowed to give blood according to your requirement that donors not be gay." The woman's eyes widened slightly. "Apparently, my blood's not good enough for you."

Yuusuke tossed his form on the table as well. "And I don't give blood to people who discriminate against others just because of sexuality."

Kuwabara followed suit, giving the woman a scolding look. "Nor do I. Che! Americans . . . What, do you think you'll turn gay if you get a transfusion of blood from a homosexual?"

The woman looked flustered. "It's FDA policy! [7]"

Hiei scowled at her. "A stupid policy. You people need to grow up." He grabbed Kurama's arm and pulled him toward the door, Yuusuke and Kuwabara following. None of them looked back.

They remained silent until after they had reached the restaurant and been seated. None of them spoke until they ordered. Finally, Hiei broke the ice that had settled upon the group. "I hate ningens. Even most youkai don't discriminate that much."

Kurama winced inwardly at _most_. "I know, Hiei. It's annoying."

Kuwabara scowled deeply. "It's pure stupidity. They pretend that they're doing stuff for the good of everyone, but they're really doing it to oppress the minority."

"Certainly sends a clear negative message out," Yuusuke muttered.

Hiei sighed. "I wonder if they'll ever change it."

Yuusuke snorted. "Fat chance. America's really ruled by the Christian Coalition, which is run by a bunch of bigots that can't see any further than their own noses."

Kuwabara scowled. "Yeah, they use religion to make themselves feel higher than everyone else, and that's messed up."

Kurama sighed, stirring his tea absently. "Yeah, but try telling them that. They won't listen and they don't care about the feelings of 'sinners.'"

"I hate that," Hiei growled. "Like they have the right to judge others! Just like . . ." He trailed off, saved by the arrival of their meal.

Kurama gently squeezed Hiei's hand under the table and shot him a look that went unnoticed by the other two, who were taking their food from the cheerful waitress. Kurama passed Hiei his plate and took his own, thanking the waitress and waiting for her to leave before addressing his friends. "Don't worry about it. Let's just forget about it and have a good time."

Yuusuke smiled. "Yeah. After all, if we let it interfere with our lives, they win."

"Yeah," Kuwabara mumbled around a bite of hamburger. He swallowed and continued. "Besides, they're the ones suffering for it. Let them have a blood shortage. If they're going to turn away potential donors, the blame for the shortage can only be placed on them."

The friends were silent for a while, preoccupied with eating. Finally Yuusuke looked up. "Hey, you guys, did you hear about that new arcade?"

Kuwabara face lit up. "The one that has an entire room of DDR? Yeah!"

Yuusuke grinned. "How about we head there after this for some fun?"

Kuwabara laughed. "Sure! Then we can introduce Hiei to DDR and have some fun!" Yuusuke joined him in laughing, and they missed the amused look that passed between Kurama and Hiei.

Kurama smiled. "It should be fun. Want to try it out, Hiei?"

Hiei maintained a neutral expression as he shrugged. "Fine with me, Fox."

* * *

[1] You must be 110 pounds to give blood, and I somehow doubt that Hiei could weigh that much and stand at the top of trees.

[2] A gaki is a vampire.

[3] This is actually in a list of requirements.

[4] A gay friend of Rose's was turned away from donating blood despite the blood shortage because he answered 'yes' to this question.

[5] CDC statistic from 2001.

[6] CDC statistic from 1989.

[7] It really is an FDA regulation.

**Authors' notes:** The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'. We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored. We do not agree with a number of policies that the mentioned organizations have, and we are using this as a means of making our disagreement with them known. Also, we would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and listen to our opinions.


	3. The University of Discrimination

**Disclaimer:** Neither of the authors own or make any claim whatsoever upon Yu Yu Hakusho and the events and characters of the aforementioned series. We also do not make any claims upon the games mentioned in this piece. This is a non-profit endeavor and is in no way, shape, or form associated with or endorsed by the copyright holders. Additionally, we do not own (or claim to own) the university mentioned in this story. If we did own it we would make sure that all policies were non-discriminatory, not just those that we couldn't get away with keeping bigoted.

**The Hypocrite Hunter**

Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora

_Chapter Three_  
Kuwabara cursed as the red Link was shoved over the edge by Fox. "STUPID URAMESHI, THAT'S THE SIXTH TIME TODAY!"

"Stupid ningen; that was me, not you. You're green!"

"Oh. In that case, GO FOR IT URAMESHI!"

Hiei scowled. "Stupid, color-blind fool." He waited impatiently for his character to return to the top of the building.

"OI, KUWABARA, GET AWAY FROM ME WITH THAT DAMN HAMMER!" Yuusuke glared at the screen as the hammer shot Fox out into the distance, causing him to disappear in a dot of light. "I should have knocked you off instead of Hiei!" The boy set down the controller and pouted slightly. He was out of lives.

"Hn. Should have thought about that before, baka." The fire demon grinned maliciously as he set up his next attack.

"SHRIMP, I THOUGHT WE AGREED THAT POKEMON WERE ILLEGAL IN THIS MATCH!"

"My silence did not indicate agreement. If you took it as such, too bad." Green Link fell over the edge of the building to certain doom, and the screen flashed in big letters _Game Over_.

Kuwabara scowled. "Cheater!"

Hiei smirked. "You assumed that I agreed to your terms, and you didn't even ask me. Setting rules without asking everyone involved if they agree with them isn't exactly fair."

Yuusuke smiled. "He's right, Kuwabara. Another go?"

"No." The carrot-top grinned. "Let's play Mario Kart."

Hiei made a face. "That's a stupid game."

Kuwabara sniggered. "Only because you always crash about fifty times a game."

"Consider my win at Melee payback, Fool."

"Yeah, especially since you always throw around those bananas and red shells." Yuusuke shuddered. "Besides, I always feel sick after watching the way Hiei 'drives.'" Hiei glared at him, and the ningen glared back. "It's true! We're _never_ letting you drive! _Ever_!" Yuusuke put up his hands in a defensive fashion as the fire demon shot him a murderous glower. "How about we play Mortal Kombat, then?"

Kuwabara frowned. "Awwww! Hiei always wins that one!"

Hiei's eye twitched slightly. "That game's also stupid. The moves are unlikely. And the live-action American movie sucked."

Yuusuke's eyebrows raised. "Eh? Which one?"

"Both of them, but the second one was worse."

"This is ridiculous!" The others looked up at the redhead, who was staring at the computer, shocked at both the interruption and the anger in Kurama's voice. "It's absolutely disgusting!"

Hiei was at the redhead's side in an instant, looking over his shoulder and glancing at the screen. "What is?"

Yuusuke and Kuwabara pulled up chairs and looked at the screen as well. Kurama sighed. "I'm considering doing study abroad in America for a semester, and this school is one of my main choices. It's one of the best engineering institutions in the country, and it would be an interesting experience." He scowled. "But it seems they're rather homophobic, if this letter in the school paper is any indication." He sighed. "Apparently, this guy thinks that homosexuality is a religion, drag shows are religious gatherings, and drag queens are preachers."

Hiei blinked. "Drag queens?"

Kurama sighed. "Men who dress as women and put on shows. I've never actually been to one, but one of the people I talk to online occasionally attended and said it was fun."

Yuusuke's eyes widened. "I thought those were transvestites."

"Nope." Kurama shook his head. "Some of them are, but some just dress for fun." He frowned. "Apparently, the university allowed the club that sponsored the show to use on-campus facilities, and this person had a problem with their show of non-discrimination."

Kuwabara frown. "That's stupid. Isn't everyone supposed to have equal access?"

Kurama sighed again. "Yes, especially since America's First Amendment to the Constitution that grants freedom of religion."

Hiei frowned. "But homosexuality isn't a religion."

"_We_ know that, but evidently there are some weirdos out there that think differently." Yuusuke scowled. "Utter stupidity."

Kurama nodded. "What's even worse is that my friend informed me that they have a freshman pre-fall program that used to include a lip sync competition. It was cut out because the year she was in it, some of the groups crossdressed as part of their act."

Yuusuke stared. "_What_?! I don't particularly like crossdressing, but that's stupid! It was college kids having a good time!"

"I know." Kurama bit his lip. "It makes me wonder if there's a very good environment there. I've also heard stories . . ." He trailed off.

Hiei poked him, his brow slightly furrowed. "What stories?"

The fox sighed. "Some guy was kicked out of his apartment for being gay before the fall semester, then falsely arrested and harassed by the 'local fuzz,' who are evidently homophobic. There have also been some more recent problems. Two guys were followed by a bunch of people in an SUV, yelled at, and videotaped. They went into a restaurant and the SUV was waiting for them when they came out. Three other guys were confronted by some people, who told one of them to 'beat up the fags and switch sides,' according to what my friend was told."

Kuwabara's eyes widened. "'Switch sides'? Like there's some kind of war or something . . ."

"I know. It makes me wonder if I should go there or not, and it makes me wonder about America as a whole. Is that the only part of the country like that, or is it the whole country?" He sighed. "And I would want to live off campus because I can't live with a non-student in the dorms, and I'm not going to leave Hiei, even for a semester." The fire demon relaxed very slightly, imperceptible to anyone but Kurama, who met his lover's eyes briefly, silently promising to talk later. "The problem is, I don't know if living off campus, or even on, would be safe. Americans are very intrusive into the private lives of others, and I'm afraid there may be problems if they discover my sexuality, especially in the engineering department."

"I wouldn't let anyone touch you."

The fire demon's words were practically hissed, and Kurama blinked. "I know that, Hiei. I meant grade-wise. They might tamper with my grades--I've heard of similar things happening in the 'States for less."

Yuusuke frowned. "I don't know what advice I can give you, Kurama. You might just be worrying about nothing. On the other hand, your worries could be realized. Human beings are very unpredictable sometimes."

"Yeah. If you want to get the experience, it's only for a semester, so it couldn't hurt your GPA too much. If you want to, try it out for a semester. Just don't try to get a job there after you graduate."

Kurama smiled. "Sound advice, Kuwabara. I'll have to think about it."

Yuusuke glanced at the computer screen again, then shot out of his seat. "Oh, shit! I'm supposed to meet Keiko in twenty minutes for a movie! She's gonna kill me if I'm late!"

"AAAAIIII!!" Kuwabara's chair fell back as he stood. "Oneechan [1] is going to kick my ass! I was supposed to be home ten minutes ago to do chores!" The two boys grabbed their daypacks [2] and said their goodbyes, then left hurriedly.

Kurama shut off the computer after they left and pulled Hiei against him. "Hiei . . . You didn't really think I'd ever leave you behind, did you?" The fire demon looked away and Kurama pulled him into his lap. "Oh, Hiei, I would never leave you to go to school. You're more important to me than that!"

Hiei sighed. "I know. But I don't know if Koenma would let me leave Japan unless it's for a mission . . ."

"Like he could stop me from bringing you along!"

The youkai looked at Kurama. "And it's a long way from here. It'd cost a lot of money, and I don't want you to waste it."

Kurama winced at the unspoken words. _On me._ "Hiei, you're not a waste of my money. I love you, and nothing is too much of a price if it means we can be together." He hugged the fire demon. "I don't think I'm going to go to America for school anyway. Maybe someday for a vacation, but not for a semester of college." The fox clicked off the desk light. "Let's go out for dinner, tonight, love. To a nice restaurant."

Hiei made a face and slid off Kurama's lap. "Does this mean I have to wear the suit?"

The redhead laughed. "No. We can find something else suitable."

"Hn. Good. Let's go, then."

* * *

[1] Oneechan = older sister.

[2] According to Rose's Japanese instructor, in Japan backpacks are called 'daypacks,' so that's what we're going with.

Admittedly, this was not going to be the third chapter. We're working on another chapter (which should be out soon), but this one had to be written. Plus it was _too_ much fun to mess with the first part. The name of the university mentioned in this piece is going to remain anonymous, though it does exist and these things _did_ happen at the same university. Frightening, isn't it?

LadyMiriamele was inspired by The Hypocrite Hunter, and she wrote a wonderful fic that we're sure you all will enjoy, entitled "Power Of Persistence." Here's the link: http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1084086

Engineering was borrowed slightly on Hikari Nanase's fic "Paradise 6." Also because the university mentioned is known mostly for engineering.

**Authors' notes:** The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'. We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored. We do not agree with a number of the official and unofficial goings-on at this university, and we are using this as a means of making our disagreement with them known. Also, we would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and listen to our opinions.


	4. The Abortion Issue

**Disclaimer:** Neither of the authors own or make any claim whatsoever upon Yu Yu Hakusho and the events and characters of the aforementioned series. We also do not make any claims upon the games mentioned in this piece. This is a non-profit endeavor and is in no way, shape, or form associated with or endorsed by the copyright holders.

**Warning:** This deals with abortion issues.

**The Hypocrite Hunter**

Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora

Dedicated to Ali

_Chapter Four_  
Yuusuke fidgeted in the hallway, waiting impatiently. "Keiko? Is it done yet?"

"No, Yuusuke! Be patient!"

He winced slightly at her tone. They were both worried about this, her more than him. The ningen paced the hallway, thinking. _Damn it . . . this wasn't supposed to happen . . ._ He paced the hall again, biting his lip nervously. _What exactly would count as good news here . . .?_ He started as the bathroom door opened and Keiko emerged. "Well . . .?" The girl was pale, and Yuusuke flinched and followed her silently to her room. "K-Keiko . . .?"

The girl closed the door behind them, then looked at Yuusuke. "Yuusuke . . . It was positive . . ." The boy's eyes widened impossibly, and he gaped, the words not quite registering, even though he'd almost been expecting them. "Yuusuke . . . I'm pregnant . . ."

Yuusuke sat down on the bed, filled with a disturbing mixture of fear, disbelief, joy, and uncertainty. "You're pregnant . . ." he repeated softly. "Keiko . . . i-is that a good thing?"

Keiko sank onto the bed next to Yuusuke, her lower lip trembling slightly. "We can't afford a baby, Yuusuke. I don't know what we're going to do . . ."

"It's not your fault, Keiko . . ." Yuusuke rubbed the bridge of his nose, wincing at the beginnings of a headache. "We used a condom . . ."

He flinched as tears spilled down Keiko's cheeks. "I know, but what can we do . . .? We don't have the money to raise a child, and we're just out of high school . . ."

"We could get married, and I-I could quit school and get a full-time job somewhere, and we can talk to our parents and maybe stay with either my family or yours until we get on our feet . . ." He winced. His mom would have no pity and would be more likely to kick him out than anything else, and Keiko's parents would be really upset. _What're we going to do . . . I don't want to ask her to . . . but . . ._

Keiko sniffled. "Or . . ." She looked at Yuusuke. "I could get an abortion."

Yuusuke's eyes widened. It was what he hadn't wanted to suggest. "Are . . . are you sure?"

"My parents would be so disappointed in me if they knew . . . They want me to go to school and get a proper education so I can make something of myself. If . . . if I have a baby and we marry now, I'll be doing what they did, and I know they want more for me. I don't want them to be disappointed in me. And . . . your mom . . . I like her, but she probably wouldn't help us." She paused. "Plus, you have ties in the Makai, and you have to go there a lot to take care of things. I don't blame you," she added as Yuusuke opened his mouth. "I know it's important. But it'd be really hard for you to hold down a real job and still be gone a lot. I don't know how you manage just with school now . . ." A tear slid down her cheek, and she wiped it away. "As much as I don't want to go with an abortion, it's what's best until things are more settled in our lives."

The tightening in Yuusuke's chest faded with the last sentence. It wasn't that Keiko didn't want to accept him and marry him. It was that things were way too chaotic for a child. The way things were going at the moment, the child would end up being hurt in the long run, and that definitely wasn't what either of them wanted to do to a child. "Okay. I'll do some research and get the money together, and we'll take care of it." He hugged her. "Keiko, don't think I was proposing just because . . ." He sighed. "You know I'm not good with words, and I'm not all that intelligent, but I love you and I would love to be married to you."

A slight blush darkened Keiko's cheeks. "Y-Yuusuke, are you _proposing_ to me?"

Yuusuke blinked, then nodded slowly. "I guess so." He smiled at her. "I want to be with you forever, Keiko."

The girl stared at him for a few minutes. Then she nodded numbly. "Hai. I accept, Yuusuke . . ." She suddenly leaned against him, wrapping her arms around him. "I love you, Yuusuke."

* * *

Botan pouted cutely, her arms crossed. "Mou . . . It's not fair! My one day off in the longest time and Keiko's sick! I was looking forward to going out for a girls' night, with all of us . . ."

Shizuru lit a cigarette and took a long drag. "She's been sick quite a lot lately. I wonder if something's wrong . . ."

Yukina frowned. "I hope not."

Botan suddenly straightened. "I know! We can go cheer her up!" Shizuru hid a smile at the ferry-girl's excitement.

Yukina clapped her hands. "I'm sure that would make her feel better! And maybe I can try to see what's wrong while we're there!"

The pink-eyed girl grinned. "Alright then, it's decided! Let's go!"

* * *

Kuwabara let out a shill noise that made both Hiei and Kurama wince as Johnny Cage was bitten in half by Liu Kang's dragon form. "You always do that, Shrimp!"

Hiei snorted. "And you always pick the buffoon. What's your point?"

The ningen glowered at Hiei. "It's more fun with Yuusuke. At least he doesn't use the same character all the time."

Kurama glanced up from his book. "Speaking of Yuusuke, where is he?"

Kuwabara sighed. "He said something about visiting Keiko because she's sick."

Hiei frowned. "Again?"

His partner's frown matched his. "She's been ill an awful lot lately. I wonder what's wrong."

"I dunno." Kuwabara scowled. "And lately, Yuusuke's always busy--working and stuff. I dunno why, and he won't talk."

Hiei and Kurama exchanged a look. The redhead sighed slightly. "Maybe we should talk to him about it. Maybe see what's going on. We might be able to help him, depending on what the problem is . . ."

Kuwabara brightened. "Yeah! You might have better luck than I have. Keiko's parents went to visit some relatives, so it shouldn't be a problem if we stop by."

Kurama smiled. "I'll bring a movie with so we can pretend that's the reason we're visiting. I just bought a new American movie yesterday, and it's supposed to be really good."

Hiei shrugged. "Well, let's go then."

* * *

Yuusuke held Keiko's hair from her face as she finished emptying her stomach into the toilet. "You okay now?" He waited for her nod and pulled her up gently, handing her a paper towel and a glass of water that he'd set on the sink. _One more day of work, and I'll have the money together. Then things will be on the track to getting better._ He led Keiko back to her bedroom and tucked her back in.

The girl sniffled a bit. "I hate this morning sickness. It's not even just morning, and it sucks."

Her fiancé sat on the bed, sighing softly. "I know, Keiko. But one more day of work, and I'll have the money together. And your appointment's on Wednesday. They'll give you the pills and things will start getting better."

Keiko nodded. "I know . . . I just feel really bad. I was supposed to go out with Botan, Shizuru, and Yukina today because Botan finally got a day off, but I can't because I'm sick . . ."

Yuusuke winced. Keiko had been looking forward to this for weeks. "I know, Keiko. Maybe you'll feel better later, and then you can go out?"

Keiko smiled at him tearfully. "Thanks, Yuusuke." The boy smiled back at her. Both of them jumped slightly as the doorbell rang. "Who could that be . . .?"

"I dunno . . ." Yuusuke frowned, getting up. "I'll go find out. Don't worry." He left the room to answer the door.

Keiko's eyes widened as she heard a familiar voice at the door. _Botan . . .?_ She sat upright as she heard Shizuru and a pause that probably indicated Yukina's soft speech. _They came to visit me . . .?_ She bit her lip, forcing down the touched tears that stung her eyes and cursing her whacked hormones. She had just gotten her emotions under control when Botan bounded into her room, followed by Shizuru and Yukina.

Botan sat down on the bed. "How are you feeling, Keiko."

The brunette smiled. "Okay. I'm sorry I'm sick. This really ruins our plans . . ." She paused and glanced at Yuusuke as the doorbell rang again, shooting him a curious look.

He sighed. "I'll check it out. Be back in a minute." He left the room.

Keiko gave her friends a warm look. "I wasn't expecting visitors, but I'm really glad you came." She paused as she heard a familiar, loud voice from the door.

Shizuru's eyes widened a bit in surprise. "What's my baka brother doing here?"

Botan blinked. "Sounds like Kurama-kun is here too."

"And probably Hiei-san," Yukina added softly.

_More visitors . . . Why are they all coming here . . .?_ Yuusuke reappeared, looking slightly annoyed. Keiko frowned. "Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara . . .?"

Yuusuke nodded. "They said they heard you were sick and came to visit. They brought a movie."

Keiko sighed. "I'll get dressed and join you. It's better than sitting in bed all day."

Botan grinned. "That'd be fun. We'll wait in the living room with the boys, then." She stood and left the room, her gait filled with energy. Shizuru shook her head at Botan's antics and left, Yukina following.

The brunette deflated. _This was not supposed to happen . . ._

* * *

"'Che! I will not watch a chick flick!" The fire demon hadn't expected his sister or the other girls to be there, and it unnerved him to be near his unknowing kin. _So close, and yet so far away . . ._

Kurama, who was seated on the floor beside the couch with his legs crossed, hid a smile. "Hiei, be tolerant." That earned him a glower. The redhead grabbed Hiei's hand and tugged him closer, whispering something to him that the others couldn't hear. The fire demon eyes widened slightly and he hned, allowing Kurama to pull him into his lap complacently.

Botan and Shizuru exchanged an amused, knowing look, moving closer to each other on the couch to make room for Keiko to sit between Botan and Yukina. The brunette sat, then glanced at Yuusuke. "What movie are we watching?"

Yuusuke looked at the title. "_Cider House Rules_. It's subtitled in Japanese, fortunately." His eyes widened as Keiko paled. "Keiko?"

The girl stood and ran from the room, her hand over her mouth. Botan ran after her, followed closely by Yukina.

Yuusuke sighed and sat down on the floor heavily, running a hand through his hair. _Damnit . . . I hate seeing her so miserable._

Hiei and Kurama exchanged a concerned glance. Kurama then devoted his attention to Yuusuke. "Did you want to tell us what's wrong?"

Yuusuke looked up, his expression that of a deer caught in headlights. "What makes you think anything's wrong."

Kurama sighed. "Yuusuke, Keiko's sick and you're working most of the time for some reason. What's going on? Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Nothing's wrong! She's just sick. And I just want money. Is there a problem with that?" The defensive inflection in his voice gave him away.

A burst of loud conversation from the bathroom interrupted their conversation. Hiei frowned. "What the hell is going on?" He looked at Yuusuke. "What are they talking about, Keiko being pregnant?"

Yuusuke blanched as three sets of eyes turned on him and Shizuru rose and headed toward the bathroom. "It . . ." He blushed. "The condom broke . . ."

Kurama winced. Kuwabara frowned. "That explains why Keiko's sick, but why are you working all the time?"

The raven-haired youth looked away. He was saved from answering by girls' return to the living room. Keiko sank to the couch, and the other three followed suit. Kurama smiled at Keiko. "Congratulations." The smile disappeared as Keiko burst into tears. He glanced at Yuusuke.

The boy sighed. "We're getting an abortion, Kurama. There's no way we can have this baby right now . . ."

Kuwabara stood. "What?! But-"

Shizuru silenced him with a deadly glare. "Kazuma, _shut up_!"

Keiko looked up, sobbing. "My parents would be so disappointed in me if they knew. They . . . they keep telling me I have all this potential. If I have a baby . . . I won't be able to do anything, and I'll end up the same way they did. And they want me to be better than they were . . ."

Kurama looked at Yuusuke. "And that's why you've been working lately?" The boy nodded slightly. "You didn't have to do that. I know of plants that can induce miscarriage. All you had to do was ask."

Yuusuke looked at the floor. "I . . . we weren't sure how you guys would react . . ."

"Yuusuke, you've supported Hiei and me in our relationship. And we're your friends. Friends support friends. Our views on the matter don't matter all that much. The decision belongs to you, and, as friends, we're going to support you. It's obvious that it was a hard decision to come to, and I know that the support of friends is important in matters like this." His arms tightened slightly around Hiei, who looked a bit confused.

Keiko sniffled. "The problem is, it'd be really hard for us to provide a good home for a baby right now. Yuusuke still has that bad reputation from high school, and it'd be hard for me to hold down a job while I'm pregnant. There's no way we could cover expenses, and both of us could count school out of the picture. And I don't like the idea of abandoning the baby to adoption either. Adopted children are expected to not do very well in the long run, and low expectations lead to low goals and accomplishments, for the most part [1]. I'd hate to think we'd be abandoning a child to that."

Hiei finally spoke. "What exactly are abortion and adoption?"

Kurama hugged the fire demon. "Abortion is when a pregnancy is terminated, and adoption is when parents who can't afford a child give the child away, usually to an orphanage." Hiei stiffened, and Kurama gently kissed the back of his neck. "The child is usually taken in by another family, but sometimes children are never adopted and they live in the orphanage until they're old enough to leave and live on their own." Hiei slid off Kurama's lap, opting to sit beside him instead. The redhead winced at the closed-off expression on his partner's face. _That strikes him a little too close to home . . ._ He gently put a hand on Hiei's knee, whispering a promise to talk later.

Yuusuke shot Kurama an apologetic look. No one else noticed anything amiss, except for Botan and Shizuru who exchanged yet another glance, this one concerned. Yuusuke cleared his throat. "We are going to get married, though. That's the second priority after . . . after this."

Keiko nodded. "That's definitely not the reason we're getting an abortion."

Kuwabara finally sighed. "I don't agree with it, but I'm your friend, so I support you in your decision." The others agreed silently.

They sat for a few minutes, no one speaking. Finally, Kurama picked up the DVD he'd brought. "I don't think this is a good movie for us to watch right now. Anyone else have any suggestions.?"

Keiko smiled wanly. "I'm actually feeling better. Why don't we go out as a group? We rarely do that, and it should be fun."

Shizuru grinned. "That sounds like a good idea. Let's get out of here. We'll decide what we're doing on our way." She rose and tugged Botan from the couch, dragging her toward the door and causing Hiei and Kurama to smirk knowingly at each other. "Come on, you bunch of lovebirds. We're wasting Botan's day off!"

"Hai!"

* * *

It was much, much later when Kurama and Hiei finally reached their apartment. The redhead was worried about his diminutive lover. Hiei, while usually somewhat reserved, had remained mostly silent throughout the entire outing, and he'd stiffened noticably--even to Kuwabara--when Kurama had told Yuusuke to stop by for the medication later in the week. "Koi, are you okay?"

"Hn."

"Did you want to talk about it?"

"Hn . . ." The fire demon sat down on the couch, curling his legs to his chest. Kurama sat beside him. "It's really hard to be around Yukina . . . especially with everything that happened today . . ." Hiei looked up, his deep eyes piercing. "Things here in the Ningenkai are so much easier . . ." He looked away again. "If they had the abortion option in the Makai . . ."

Kurama hugged Hiei, pulling the fire demon into his lap. "Shhhh . . . Hiei . . ."

The Jaganshi shook his head. "Fox . . . It made me wonder if I would have been better off."

The youko's eyes widened impossibly and he hugged Hiei so tightly that the fire demon felt as though he was in danger of suffocating. "Don't say that! Don't _ever_ say something like that, Hiei!" Kurama loosened his hold on Hiei, allowing his lover to breathe. "Hiei . . . If that had happened, I never would have met you. And I _love_ you. I love you so much, Hiei." Kurama's voice broke and he kissed Hiei over the Jagan and buried his face in the dark, spiky hair.

Hiei slipped his arms around the fox , hugging him gently. "I'm sorry, Fox. I shouldn't have said that."

Kurama pulled away. "No. I want you to be honest with me, Hiei." He placed a chaste kiss on his partner's lips. "I'm just afraid that I'm not doing well by you if you still feel like that."

The fire demon smiled slightly at the redhead. "Fox . . . it's been a _long_ time since I've felt like that, _because_ of you."

His lover smiled back, his worry appeased. "And everyone feels like that from time to time. They just need reassurance, ne?" Hiei nodded and Kurama's smile widened, turning somewhat lecherous. "So . . . where do you want that reassurance?"

* * *

[1] I don't know if that's really how it works in Japan. However, in the Kodomo No Omocha manga, they said something along those lines because the main character, it turns out, is adopted. Therefore, we're using it. It's also similar to how adopted/foster kids tend to be viewed in America.

From sources that we could find, abortion is usually readily available in Japan for those who want it and, for a time, was supposedly more popular than birth control. But that's according to the sources we found, and may not be based on fact.

This was a rather long chapter. We hope you liked it.

**Authors' notes:** The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'. We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored. While we may or may not agree with abortion, we believe that friends should support friends in things like this despite personal views. Otherwise, the friendship isn't really much of one. Voicing one's opinion once is okay, but repeatedly condemning the person isn't friendship. That is our opinion and this is our way of voicing it.


	5. The Beginning of World War III?

**Disclaimer:** Neither of the authors own or make any claim whatsoever upon Yu Yu Hakusho and the events and characters of the aforementioned series. We also do not agree with many of the policies the mentioned nation has. This is a non-profit endeavor and is in no way, shape, or form associated with or endorsed by the copyright holders.

**The Hypocrite Hunter**

Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora

_Chapter Five_  
Kurama sat back on the couch, his eyes half-closed as he enjoyed the laziness of the day. In one hand was a book that he'd been trying--and failing--to read. The other hand was being run through Hiei's hair. The fire demon was sprawled out on the couch beside him, his head in the fox's lap, dozing quietly. It had been a lazy Sunday--the Sunday before Christmas--and they had spent all of it relaxing. Kurama set down the book and was just about to shift to lay next to Hiei when the doorbell rang.

Hiei stirred, one eye opening lazily. "Who's that?"

"I don't know, koi." He ran his fingers through Hiei's head, gently laying him down as he got off the couch. "I'll go check." The redhead smiled as Hiei's eye closed again. He hurried to the door as the bell rang again, looking through the peephole to see a rather odd version Yuusuke and Kuwabara. "Hi! Hiei! We have guests!" Kurama held in a chuckle at the barely audible string of choice curses that came from the being on the couch. "Come on in."

Yuusuke grinned. "We haven't seen you two in a few days, so we figured we'd visit you."

Kuwabara snorted. "In other words, Yuusuke's video games suck. Besides which, his TV is broken."

Kurama's eyes crinkled in amusement as Yuusuke thwapped Kuwabara. The teen grinned innocently at the redhead. "Well, anyways, we got bored and decided to come over."

"And we were kinda hoping that we could play video games." Yuusuke whapped Kuwabara again, and the ningen glared at him. "_What_?!"

"You're not supposed to _say_ that!" Yuusuke spoke around gritted teeth.

Kurama chuckled. "It's fine, Yuusuke. Really, it is." The fox turned toward the couch. "Hiei, did you want to play?" There was no response. "I guess he's asleep."

Kuwabara grinned. "That's fine with me! Maybe I can beat Urameshi at Super Smash Brothers, then. It'll be easier without Hiei cheating." There was no response from the fire demon and Kuwabara frowned, pouting slightly.

The redhead rolled his eyes. "You two know how to set it up. Go ahead, but keep the volume down." He smirked and shook his head as the boys ran around the couch and plopped onto the floor in front of the TV, Kuwabara turning the device on while Yuusuke hooked up the Gamecube. Kurama frowned as he watched the station, which had a CNN news brief running. "Hold on; what's that?"

Yuusuke stopped fiddling with the cords and looked up. "Dunno." He turned the volume up as Kurama sat on the couch and resumed the position he'd been in before the two teens had shown up. "Looks like something's going on in America."

Kuwabara's eyes widened at the protest on the screen. "What do those signs say?"

Kurama blinked in shock. "'What's next? Concentration camps?' and 'What happened to liberty and justice?' [1]."

Hiei sat up. "What are they talking about?" His question went unanswered as the other three kept their attention on the television. He took the hint and listened.

"Hundreds of Middle Eastern citizens are being jailed in southern California in the United States, having come forward to register to comply with new laws. Officials claim that they are being jailed for legitimate reasons such as living with an expired visa, yet only people from the Middle East are being targeted. The exact number of people arrested is unknown, as the INS has refused to release numbers. Estimates run anywhere from five hundred arrests to one thousand, and it is said that prisons are so overcrowded that some prisoners may be sent to out-of-state prisons to wait for weeks or months, away from their families, for trials that could lead to deportation.

"Experts are equating this to the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and the American Civil Liberties Union is outraged at the apparent repeat of history. More that five hundred thousand Iranian exiles reside in southern California, and these developments have many of them concerned about their fate. In-"

Kurama switched off the TV, his face stony. "If this isn't a sign that World War III is about to begin, I don't know what is."

Yuusuke's eyes were wide. "No wonder they're protesting . . . They're being treated like criminals!"

Hiei frowned. "I don't get it."

"Back in the 50's, there was a war that was pretty much between the United States and Japan," Kuwabara started. "The United States is different from Japan. It has a lot of citizens from foreign countries living in it."

Yuusuke took over. "That included people of Japanese descent. Many of them were assumed to be sympathetic to the Japanese military, and America was afraid that they'd cause trouble."

Kurama nodded. "So they set up internment camps for Japanese citizens, and forced quite a few people of Japanese descent into them. It was like the Nazi death camps, but there was no outright killing."

The fire demon's frown deepened. "But how did they know they were traitors?"

"They didn't." Kurama shook his head. "They assumed. It's called racial profiling, and the United States supposedly frowns on it, but then does it anyway and justifies it."

"That's why so many minorities are arrested for drug charges in America," Yuusuke added. "It's not because they use drugs more. It's because minorities are often assumed to be criminals, so the police check them more. It's really sad that most politicians seem to be racist [2]."

"So they imprisoned innocent people because some of them _might_ have been traitors? No proof?" Hiei scowled as Kurama nodded. "That's ridiculous! What about after the war?"

Kurama shrugged. "They were let out of the camps and allowed to return home, if they had one. Of course, their jobs weren't necessarily held. The United States compensated them after they were forced to through lawsuit, but that was really about it."

Hiei snorted. "As if money makes up for the time lost and the degradation."

Yuusuke sighed. "It doesn't, but it's better than nothing. The United States still refuses to make slavery reparations, and that happened centuries ago. I'd say the statute of limitations has run out, but racism is still going on. Plus there was still segregation half a century ago. But it's never going to happen." The teen rolled his eyes. "And it's not like they care all that much. As long as they can get away with it without International repercussion--and sometimes even that doesn't stop them--they're going to do it."

"But it was _wrong_!" 

"So was what happened in Nazi Germany, but no one tried to stop it until it directly affected them." Yuusuke shook his head. "That's why there's that famous quote: 'In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me--and by that time there was nobody left to speak up' [3]." Yuusuke sighed. "If something doesn't affect someone, they're not going to speak up against it and risk persecution. They'd rather remain apathetic."

"But they still made this mistake before!" Hiei growled. "And now they're doing it _again_?! Don't any of them see that they're repeating history??"

Kuwabara snickered. "They have free schooling. Most American schoolchildren are taught propaganda. America is always the good guy, and anyone they're fighting is evil. They refuse to look at their nation, and I'd bet it's because they're afraid that they have just as many faults as everyone else, if not more."

Kurama nodded. "And the sad thing is, any American who voices a dissenting opinion these days is labeled un-American, even if they're only trying to bring something to light and point out that it's wrong [4]. What's even sadder is that Americans are losing the very thing they're fighting for--their freedoms--with some of the new laws that have been passed lately. The Patriot Act removes much of their privacy rights, and the Homeland Security Act is worse. And then there's the No Child Left Behind act for education, which contains a clause that forces all public schools to hand over the contact information of all students or risk losing funding. Most schools aren't telling students that they have the right to sign forms to keep their information from being handed over. Once the military has your contact information, they won't take no for an answer. According to what I've heard, families have to call a politician or die for them to stop trying to recruit [5]."

Hiei sighed. "That's really stupid. If someone doesn't want to be in the military, you shouldn't force them. They're more likely to desert if they're forced into it."

Yuusuke rolled his eyes. "Try telling them that. I actually kind of pity Americans. They're being stripped of their rights and most of them don't even realize it."

"Yeah, and even if they do, they can't do anything about it for another two years. That's when the next election is. And with the way things are going, I'd bet they'll keep the idiot in office [6]." Kuwabara scowled.

Hiei snorted. "Yeah, even _you're_ smarter than him."

Kuwabara glared at him, and Kurama smoothly cut off any chance for further argument. "All we can do is hope that they _do_ vote him out, and that World War III doesn't break out before the elections. Let's do something other than talk about politics."

Yuusuke grinned and plugged in the Gamecube. "I was just about to whip Kuwabara's ass at Super Smash Brothers!"

"No you weren't!" Kuwabara scowled. "I'm going to beat you, Urameshi!"

Hiei exchanged a slightly amused look with Kurama, then lay down, preparing to nap by Kurama. The redhead turned the television back on for the teens, muting it out of consideration for Hiei. He picked up his book and began reading, resuming his petting of Hiei as Yuusuke and Kuwabara began a game, being surprisingly quiet. The fire demon drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Hiei woke as Kurama poked him gently. "Hmmm?"

The fox smiled at him. "They just left a few minutes ago. You took a really long nap."

The fire demon yawned. "Mm." He sat up and stretched, yawning again as he did so. He stared at the black screen of the television for a moment, frowning. "Kurama, do you really think there will be a war?"

Kurama sighed. "There's a good possibility of it, Hiei. I hate to mince words, but there's no point in deluding myself."

Hiei scowled. "It's so stupid. And the people being arrested . . . Won't anything be done to stop that?"

"I don't know, Hiei." Kurama sat beside his partner. "I'm betting that there's nothing that can be done. Even if the UN says something, I doubt it'll be listened to. I hate to think of all those people who are going to end up being deported with no place to go . . ."

"We're never moving to America." Hiei sighed. "You know . . . The Ningenkai is starting to look more and more like the Makai."

"That's because they _are_ very similar. Youkai have been visiting the Ningenkai for years." Kurama hugged Hiei from behind. "Youkai influenced ningen development and vice versa." The youko kissed the back of Hiei's neck, running caressing hands over his lover's chest.

The Jaganshi gasped as the redhead's hand brushed across a nipple, and grinned. "Are you trying to tell me something, Fox?"

Kurama pulled Hiei down to the couch. "Yeah. I don't want to discuss politics anymore."

The fire demon smirked. "And how are you going to stop me from discussing it with you?"

The youko laughed. "Oh, I have my ways."

They were pleasantly occupied for the rest of the evening.

* * *

[1] Part of an article that can be found here: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20021218_609.html

[2] For amusement's sake: http://bsd.mojones.com/humor/fiore/2002/52/we_247_01.html

[3] Quotation by Martin Niemoller, 1945.

[4] Believe it or not, we were actually asked if we had anti-American sentiment. Our response is no. We just keep our eyes open to the fact that this country, like all others, has serious issues. Vocalizing a dissenting opinion is not un-American at all, especially since we're granted Freedom of Speech through the Constitution. To _not_ vocalize our opinion would be un-American. Also, please keep in mind that we're writing this from the point of view of the _characters_--who are not American and, in the show, have no American ties--not necessarily ourselves. Their opinion is therefore more critical because they're on the outside and have a fuller view of the problems. After all, many Americans vocalize anger/dissent about what happens in Arab nations, while most of the people in Arab nations don't seem to have much of a problem with it. Outside looking in is a much different perspective.

[5] The freaky part about that entire paragraph is that it's true. For the recruiting deal, check this link out: http://bsd.mojones.com/news/outfront/2002/45/ma_153_01.html

[6] Can you tell I'm in an interesting mood tonight? Check this out (it's a baby shirt): http://www.tshirthell.com/shirts/tshirt.php?sku=a120

Call me a doomsayer, but something tells me that The Hypocrite Hunter isn't going to last much longer on FFN. If it is booted, it will still be continued on http://www.mediaminer.org (which is a better site anyway). So if worst comes to worst, check there for updates.

**Authors' notes:** The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'. We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored. We do not agree with a number of the official and unofficial goings-on in the mentioned country, and we are using this as a means of making our disagreement with them known. And we do know that other countries aren't much better and respond with the following statement: That's no excuse. Also, we would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and listen to our opinions.


	6. For Wont of a Spellchecker

**Disclaimer:** Neither of the authors own or make any claim whatsoever upon Yu Yu Hakusho and the events and characters of the aforementioned series. We also do not make any claims upon the video game(s) mentioned in this piece. This is a non-profit endeavor and is in no way, shape, or form associated with or endorsed by the copyright holders.

Additionally, we do not own or maintain the mailing list alluded to in this chapter.  If we _were_ the list mommies of this particular mailing list, we would probably die of overwork in a futile attempt to insert a semblance of intelligence into those messages that lacked any sensibility and legibility whatsoever.

**The Hypocrite Hunter**

**Chapter Six**

**Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora**

"Good grief," Yuusuke muttered dazedly.  "Don't these people have anything better to do than talk about how hot anime characters are?"

"Eh?"  Kuwabara diverted his attention from the television screen for just long enough for Hiei to knock the green Link off of the cliff with a Pokémon.  "Dammit, Shrimp, play by the rules!"

Hiei glared at him and knocked his character off of the same cliff, this time making good use of a gigantic hammer.  "Only when you quit cheating!"

"I'm not cheating! You're the one who's always chucking Pokémon at everyone!"

"And I still haven't agreed to not do it, so you have no reason to complain."

Kuwabara sighed and dropped his controller.  "Fine, Shrimp.  I'm not going to argue with a cheater.  Now, Urameshi, what's your problem?"

"Come here and read this," Yuusuke said, pointing to the web page he was on.  Kuwabara moved to stand behind him, seeing nothing more than what looked like any other email message.  He started reading, but abandoned the attempt after the first few horridly misspelled lines.

"Damn.  Who sent you that one?"

"Someone on the mailing list I joined a couple of months ago.  I thought it would help me improve my English, but if this is the way the _native_-speakers write, then it looks like I'd be better off going to class!"

A snort came from the general vicinity of Kuwabara's elbow.  "You, going to class?  Don't make me laugh."

"What's wrong, Hiei, afraid to admit that you can't even write in your _own_ language?"  Kuwabara laughed, earning himself a matched pair of glares from both Hiei and Kurama.

"It's pretty difficult to learn to write in a language that's never had an alphabet of its own, Kuwabara-kun.  And there's no equivalent in any human language I know for some of the sounds in it," Kurama said, coming over to join the others by the computer.  Kuwabara shifted nervously, although Hiei pretended to not notice.  "Inari-sama, that _is_ horrid!  How can they understand _themselves_ when they write like that?  No offense, Yuusuke, but your English is so much better than this I'm shocked."

Yuusuke looked torn between preening at the praise and acting offended at the implications.  "You think this one's bad, wait until you see a couple of the other 'regulars' around here," he said, hitting the back button and clicking on another bold subject.

Kuwabara choked, and Kurama stared at the offending material with what might have been termed scholarly disinterest by anyone who had seen his expression at that moment.

"Interesting.  I take it the 'ur' is intended to be a shortened form of your, but why is that person asking for hentai manga on a mailing list about Dragonball Z?"  Kurama asked, reading through the message.  "Wait a minute, isn't 'Spiritreigun' one of your screen names?"

Yuusuke flushed and deleted the message.  "It's not my fault, really!  Kuwabara made me post that one!"

Hiei looked at him skeptically.  "_Sure_ he did."

"He did!  He was going to tell my mom exactly where the rest of her imported vodka went if I didn't!"

"Vodka?  You drank _vodka_?" Kurama stared at him incredulously.  "How can you _stand_ that stuff?"

That earned a sheepish look from Yuusuke.  "It was all that was in the house at the time!"

Hiei snorted.  "You're as much of a fool as the oaf, even if you're only drinking that weak human excuse for liquor."

"HEY!"  Yuusuke and Kuwabara yelled simultaneously.

"It's not weak," Yuusuke muttered indignantly.

"Not for human brews, no, but compared to what we're used to it might as well be ginger ale."

"No wonder you two never get drunk," Kuwabara said.  Hiei snorted.

"Never around _you_, at least."

"Whoa, Yuusuke, go back to that last message," Kurama said, pointing to a line of text.  Yuusuke complied and Kuwabara stared at the screen in confusion.

"Where's the reply to that?" he wondered.  "This is the same message you just deleted!"

Yuusuke sighed and scrolled down the page.  Reply after reply after reply flashed by, but still the latest response eluded the Reikai Tantei.  When Yuusuke finally stopped scrolling, the four of them leaned forward, even though Hiei couldn't read English, only to see the one-word response to end all one-word responses: k.

Perhaps the previous sentence should be revised now that it has been considered--it would be much more accurate to say that it was the one-letter response to end all one-letter responses.

Kurama and Kuwabara stared at the one letter in stunned bemusement.  "All that for just one little letter?"

Yuusuke nodded.  "Yep.  Sadly enough, it's typical of the people that frequent this list--they keep every single reply in the thread until it can be traced all the way back to the origin of the internet, and they like hiding their replies in weird places in the messages.  They've also been known to send replies completely unrelated to the topic, and in this case the rampant one-letter response has reared its hideous head."

"How . . . moronic," Kuwabara said.  "Why do you bother getting messages from illiterate morons like that?"

"Because," Yuusuke grinned at him and clicked on another subject, "people like this one make it totally worthwhile."

"Really?"  Kurama asked, reading the post aloud.  "'If I didn't know any better I'd say that you were trying to scare us intelligent newbies away from this ML with your rampant idiocy. And yes, your point is _very_ clear: you escaped from some loony bin and didn't take your medication and now you're running on an obsession for a two-dimensional anime character.'

"'Happens all the time.'"

Yuusuke smirked.  "See what I mean?  That particular person is one of the lurkers, but when she decides to pop out of the woodwork she definitely makes her presence known.  It seems like she tends to wait until someone posts something really idiotic to delurk, though."

"Seems like she likes to point out exactly how stupid some of those . . . threads . . . are," Hiei said, smirking.

"No kidding.  Here's another one: 'There's a very distinct difference between the usage of English by one who is just learning the language and by one who never bothered learning the language properly in the first place.'  
"'The latter seems to be the case here.'"

"What was that in response to?"  Kurama asked.  Yuusuke scrolled down, and Kurama nodded in understanding.  "No wonder--whoever wrote that message can't even use correct punctuation and capitalization!"

"Not to mention the fact that the spelling is just as bad as that first one," Yuusuke said.  Hiei muttered something about being glad that his own native tongue didn't have a written form as Yuusuke deleted that message as well.

Three jaws dropped open in shock at the content of the next message.  Hiei craned his neck to stare at Kurama.  "Well?  What does it say, fox?  I can't see the screen from here--the oaf's in the way!"

"It's . . . an advertisement for a website that offers people the opportunity to marry or enslave their favorite anime characters."  Hiei's crimson eyes narrowed dangerously.

"That's obscene."

"Rikkui agrees with you on that point," Yuusuke stated, pointing at a heavily capitalized section of one of the responses to that message.  "I think this is the first time I've ever seen her 'yell' about anything on here."

"I can see why," Kurama said.  "I'd probably be yelling about that, too, even if it _was_ just something that someone decided to create for fun."

"Where's the fun in owning another person?"  Hiei demanded.  "Even if it's not a real person being enslaved, the implications are the same.  Whoever decided to start that needs to realize exactly how obscene his or her actions are."

"No kidding," Kuwabara said.  "I can't believe that person actually went as far as advertising it on a public mailing list!"

"Yeah," Yuusuke said, deleting that message after sending his own caustic reply to its sender--with Kurama's assistance in the spelling and grammatical departments, of course.  "You know, it's always like this on here.  There's so many flakes on here that it puts the cereal aisle in an American grocery store to shame!"

Kurama giggled into his hand, but Kuwabara and Hiei stared at him in confusion.  Yuusuke sighed.  "Never mind.  Enough of this for today--I swear this thing is worse than hentai manga in the brain cell rotting department."

"And yet you still read them," Kuwabara said, leering at Yuusuke and receiving an extremely rude gesture gotten from an American movie in return.

"Whatever.  You guys want to hit the arcade?"

Kuwabara snorted.  "We were just there _last_ night, Urameshi!  Let's go see what's playing at the theater instead."

"Sounds good to me," Kurama said.  "What do you think, Hiei?"

"Hn.  I don't care."

Yuusuke grinned as he shut down the computer.  "Genkai's temple is on the way to the theater, so we can pick up Yukina and Keiko on our way.  Although they'll probably want to go to some chick flick and nothing worthwhile . . ."

Kuwabara didn't seem to mind that possibility any, and the other three had to run to catch him as he thundered off in the direction of the temple.

**Authors' notes:** The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'. We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored.  Also, we would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and listen to our opinions.

Additionally, I would like to extend special thanks to Rikkui lai'Kyasha for allowing the use of her name in this chapter, as well as the use of several of her statements.  This chapter is not intended to insult or offend anyone, merely to point out the fact that problems are as inherent in anime mailing lists as they are elsewhere on the World Wide Web.  The simple truth of the matter is that it is nearly impossible to find a person who is intelligent enough to know how much weight really rests upon proper use of a written language, and the problem does not stop with mailing lists and online forums.  There are those writers out there that refuse to consider the fact that their work _does_ need polishing before being posted for everyone to see.  Many of these people are also intolerant of any criticism they might receive from honest reviewers.

The point of the preceding statements is that writing is something to be taken seriously--especially if you want other people to take you seriously.  If you don't care enough about what you publish to reread it and take the necessary time to edit what mistakes you find, how can a reader (who just might be a writer as well) believe that your story is worth reading?  If you can't edit your work, or ask someone else to review it before you publish it, you're only hurting yourself.  And if you intend to go professional with your writing and attempt to have an original story in such condition published, you're undoubtedly going to find your manuscript at the bottom of the editor's slush pile.

I personally hate seeing the amount of time I spend on making sure that my work is the absolute best I am capable of in comparison to the amount of time some other authors take on theirs.  Most of the fics out there are nothing more than first drafts, and very bad ones at that--it's hard to find something worth reading when your time is limited.

I guess the point that I'm trying to get across with this rambling train of thought is that we need more quality fanfiction these days.  I'd like to see some good pieces from new authors as well as the established ones.

~Yamino Tora


	7. The Liberal Agenda

**Disclaimer: **Neither of the authors own or make any claim whatsoever upon Yu Yu Hakusho and the events and characters of the aforementioned series. This is a non-profit endeavor and is in no way, shape, or form associated with or endorsed by the copyright holders.

**The Hypocrite Hunter Chapter Seven Co-written by Rose Thorne and Yamino Tora**

The war on the pop-up ads had just ended, and in Kurama's humble opinion, it was about damn time. "That's the last time I'm going to click on a link that Yuusuke sends me," he muttered.

He wouldn't have minded the entire incident so much if it hadn't been for the slightly minor fact that every time he tried to close one of those pop-up windows, ten more had opened in its place. It had taken nearly fifteen minutes for him to get rid of the last one, and he was in no mood to deal with anything even remotely similar at that point.

"Might as well see who's online right now," he said, opening the program. Both Yuusuke and Kuwabara were on, he noted, smirking as a thought crossed his mind. He clicked on Yuusuke's screen name and typed a few words, linked a couple of them to the site that the human had sent him to, and sent it off, blocking Yuusuke immediately afterwards. _Let him deal with those for a while!_

A few minutes later Kuwabara had the misfortune of instant messaging him. _'What'd you do that made Yuusuke so mad?'_

_'I don't know. I just linked him to a site he sent to me at some point.' _Kurama grinned and added a bit more to that. _'He's probably just learned why most people don't antagonize kitsune_.'__

Kuwabara didn't press the issue, and Kurama was preparing to log off when another window popped onto his screen. He almost thought that it was Yuusuke, using a different screen name to get revenge on him, but he recognized this one. _And I have been looking for a chance to practice my English on someone . . ._

_'LafUniDyke says: Hi, Kurama. How have you and your boyfriend been?'_

_'Not too bad, Jo,' _he wrote. _'Well, there was that one little incident with Hiei and the dryer beast from hell on Monday . . ._

_'Dryer beast from hell? Lol! What happened?'_

He pondered telling her the truth, decided that she wouldn't believe it if he told her that Hiei had thought the dryer was challenging him when it had buzzed, and settled for an extremely abbreviated version of the story. _'Nothing much. It buzzed, he took it personally, and my poor sheets got the short end of the stick.'_

_'Poor sheets. They certainly didn't deserve such a cruel fate.'_ While Kurama agreed with that, it was still better that Hiei had gotten his vengeance on the sheets and not the dryer itself . . .

_'Better than the dryer. They're a lot cheaper, after all.'_

_'True, unless they were satin. Those cost an arm and a leg. But you wouldn't be putting those through the dryer, so . . .'_

_'No worries about that.'_ Not that he hadn't _tried_--he had no complaints against satin sheets, but Hiei hadn't liked the way they felt and had told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to tolerate them. Of course, there was always the possibility of blackmailing Hiei into accepting things, but he was saving that option for a last resort . . .

_'Definitely,'_ Jo wrote.

_'So how's your summer been going so far? Any new homophobes popping out of the woodwork lately?'_ He still hadn't gotten over just how intolerant some of the people she dealt with on a regular basis were. Some of the horror stories she had told him had been enough to convince him that he didn't really want to go study in the States for a semester.

'_Only the entire country.'_ Kurama's eyes widened. _'Have you heard about the new Constitutional amendment they're trying to pass in the United States to ban gay marriage?'_

His jaw dropped. _'You've got to be kidding! That's awful!'_

_'I wish. Some "pro-family" group proposed it. It might even pass. Good thing, though, is that Cheney is against it. Shock of shockers, eh?'_

Kurama nodded even though he knew Jo couldn't see the action. _'Yeah. I can't believe they're doing that, though! People keep complaining about how there's too much hate in the world, and then they have 'brilliant brainstorms' like that and wind up doing exactly what they were so against in the first place, but it's okay because families can only consist of a breeding pair and their offspring in their minds…'_

"I can't believe they'd go that far, even if they _are only human," he muttered._

"Who'd go how far?" Kurama jumped, having been so absorbed with the chat that he didn't notice Hiei enter the room.

"A pro-family group in the States is trying to get add an amendment to the country's Constitution banning gay marriage." Hiei snorted.

"How . . . _ningen_ of them," he said disgustedly. "Don't they have better things to do than pry into others' personal business?"

"Apparently not," Kurama said, reading Jo's response. _'I know. It's pure ignorance at work. And I can't even keep up with all the news about it since I'm so busy working and doing homework for this stupid summer class!'_

_'Yikes. That must be frustrating, then.'_

_'Very. I'm so stressed out, it's not even funny. I thought Liberal Arts was supposed to be _easy . . .' Kurama nodded sympathetically. '_In any case, Bush is still screwing up, and the U.S. continues to let him.'_

"Well?" Hiei demanded impatiently.

"Well what?" Kurama asked, giving his lover a confused look.

"Am I going to have to learn English if I want to know what you two are saying?" Hiei stared pointedly at the monitor, and Kurama grinned sheepishly before relaying the gist of the conversation. "Oh. _That idiot again."_

Kurama barely concealed a grin as he typed in his response. _'So I've noticed. It's sad how so many people can just follow the crowd even when the pack leader is so obviously incompetent.'_

_'Definitely. Even wolves will kill a stupid pack leader.'_

"That's because wolves aren't nearly as stupid as humans are," Hiei muttered caustically.

"It's because wolves aren't concerned with politics like humans are, Hiei."

"Hn. I still say they're all idiots."

"What about Yuusuke?"

"He stole my _chocolate mousse _Pocky last week."

Kurama snickered--Hiei was almost as addicted to Pocky as he was to ice cream. And _nobody_ with an ounce of common sense to spare touched Hiei's Pocky.

Especially when it was _chocolate mousse _Pocky. "What about Botan, then?"

"She's dead," Hiei said, completely deadpan. "Not human, but certainly an idiot."

"Remind me to never get into arguments about the technicalities of being dead versus being human," Kurama said, turning his attention back to the latest message Jo had sent him.

_'Mind if I start a chat with a friend of mine?'_

_'Not at all,' _he wrote.

_'Shibby. Hang on a sec.'_

_'No problem.' _The accept chat invitation dialogue box popped up, and he clicked 'OK.'

"What're you doing now?" Hiei asked, draping an arm over Kurama's shoulders.

"Joining a chat Jo invited me into with a friend of hers."

"Ah."

_'Oh, good. We're all here now,'_ Jo wrote.

_'Great. I still don't get why you drag me into these things, though . . ._' Kurama grinned at EnigmaNoKoi's message.

_'Because your sarcasm is handy,' _Jo replied.

_'Oh. Hey, who's FoxFireBoi?'_

_'A friend of mine from Japan. His name's Kurama.'_

_'Ah. Um . . . nice to meet you, Kurama. I'm Robyn.'_

_'The same Robyn who happens to be Jo's partner in crime?'_

_'Yeah. She's the Runner of the Plot Bunnies.'_

_'Marathon Runner of the Plot Bunnies, you mean. After that incident last week and all.'_

_'I'm not sure I want to ask,_' Kurama typed.

_'You probably don't. Suffice to say that Robyn proved her insanity to everyone in the vicinity.'_

_'Vicinity' covering an area of approximately two square miles, if I recall correctly. It's not my fault I'm insane--it's the critics' fault!'_

_'You frighten me sometimes.'_ Kurama laughed at Jo's statement, amused by the chemistry between the friends.

_'Yeah, well, you would frighten people too if someone told you to live with the fact that the world's not fair just because most people already do!'_

_'Yikes. Lazy morons like that would be the reason that the world never changes for the better.'_

_'Who said that? If I might ask, that is?'_ Kurama asked.

_'No idea. Some random person who was too cowardly to sign their name to their own words,' _Robyn replied.

"Obviously they don't have a high opinion of their own statements if that's the case," Hiei said when Kurama read it to him. "Even the Oaf has the guts to at least admit that he was the one who said something."

"I'm going to use that," Kurama said, although he didn't bring Hiei's comment about Kuwabara into the conversation.

Jo quickly responded to that. _'That's because it's not worth much. It was basically them saying "I'm a lazy fuck unless it affects me, and even then I just let it happen."'_

_"True, but it still pisses me off,'_ Robyn wrote. _'Especially because said person also thinks that people who are 'so against America' should move to another country--never mind the fact that technically _being against America means being against every country in both North and South America and not just the United States--and that people who 'are already living in a different one have no right to say those things.' The thing that gets to me is that speaking my own mind is suddenly a crime, and disagreeing with certain aspects of life here makes me anti-American . . .'__

_'Isn't that anti-American in and of itself? I mean . . . the First Amendment, anyone?'_

Kurama quickly deleted the small line of text he'd been typing and re-started. _'That's just what I was going to say, Jo. Wouldn't it be more anti-American to _not_ speak your mind? After all, governments are supposedly 'created by the people, for the people.''_

_'You know, every time I go home, I hear that. "If you don't like it, move to France." Hell, I'd love to move to France! At least they're less hypocritical than the U.S.'_

_'Tell that to the people who decided that meddling in other countries' affairs was for the good of the world. Oh, wait, if the multiple translations of that statement are correct, and Bush was quoted correctly, then God Himself decided that playing dominoes with the governments of other countries was what we need to be concerning ourselves with!'_

_'Did you hear he wants to go after another country now?' _Jo wrote in response to Robyn's comment.

Kurama's jaw dropped. _'Who now?!'_

_'Liberia.'_

_'You know, he shows a few of the signs of being a religious fanatic . . . like those people who murder their families because 'God told them to' . . . wasn't that the case with the guy that kidnapped Elizabeth Smart?'_ Robyn asked.

_'Yup,'_ Jo replied.

_'Sheesh. Isn't there supposed to be a separation of church and state there? And for the _President_ to have supposedly said something like that to another dignitary! Even if it's misquoted, it's still a horrifying thought!'_

"No kidding," Hiei said. "You know what Farfarello would say in response to that?"

"Farfarello? From Weiss Kreuz?" Hiei nodded. "Not offhand, I don't."

"Insulting the President of the United States hurts God." Kurama stifled a laugh. Hiei smirked. "I'm going to go kick the Oaf's ass in Melee. George said that the Brat and the Ditz are making bets on whether or not he can beat me at the stupid game with Yuusuke."

Kurama did laugh at that. "All right. Just remember, we've got plans for tonight."

"Like I could forget," Hiei muttered as he disappeared, leaving his lover to chat with Jo and Robyn. Kurama grinned and turned his attention back to the monitor.

_'There was one release, I don't remember what, but it said that Bush stated that God had told him to bring peace to Israel, and that he had to do it before campaign time. It was in a bunch of newspapers in the Middle East or something.'_

_'I don't see how he can manage to do that. People have to be ready for the change, and bring it about themselves. I can't see how an outside force is going to give them something like peace. If they really wanted it, they would have it.' _Kurama wrote.

_  
_Robyn's response was almost immediate._ 'Not to mention that historically, the redrawing of all those borders by European countries after WWI hasn't helped tension any. External parties arbitrarily deciding where countries are going to be based on their whims isn't a way to earn favor.'_

  
'_It may be a bit extreme, but I think the only way any peace will be achieved is to move them all out, bomb the place to the ground and burn the remains, and shove them back there to rebuild.'_ Jo wrote.

  
'_You're probably right, except then they'd decide to make life difficult for whoever did that.'_

  
'_Yeah, and no one's willing to, either. That's the problem with religion. The wars.'_

_'And the fanatics . . .'_ Robyn contributed. _'Can't forget the fanatics, can we?'_

  
_'Speaking of fanatics, did you hear about Michael Savage?' _Jo asked.

_'No . . .'_ Kurama replied.

_  
'Oh, those homophobic comments he was making? I think you were telling me about those.' _Robyn said.

_  
'Well, Kurama, he had his own live talk show on TV, which the gay and lesbian community warned against. He was taking calls about some stupid thing, and he ended up calling one of the callers a sodomite and telling him he deserved to get AIDS and die.' _Jo explained. '_He was fired, but he still has a radio program. He was apparently taken off some stations after that, though.'_

_'You're right, that is fanatical. Everyone's worrying about homosexuals being destructive to the morals of their society, but intolerance is a lot more dangerous, if you ask me.'_

_  
'Agreed. Funny thing is, homosexuals take all this stuff with a grain of salt. They do the "kill 'em with kindness" thing.'_

_  
'It's better than spewing hatred, at least.' _Robyn put in.

_  
'Definitely.'_

_  
' Yeah, but it'll take persistence and dedication to the cause to get anything done. It's certainly not going to be an easy fight.'_ Kurama wrote, frowning slightly.

_'Not with the Christian Coalition running the country.'_ Had Jo's words been spoken, they would have been dripping with disgust, Kurama thought.

_'No kidding. You know, I hate to admit this, but that one person I was telling you guys about earlier was right. The world isn't fair at all. That's why we have to work so hard to change the way things are.'_

_'Half right. We shouldn't just "live with it".' _Jo corrected.

_  
'Er... two-fifths right. Considering that most people already do live with the way things are.' _Robyn pointed out.

_  
' Funny thing is, if everyone just "lived with it", we'd still have slavery, and segregation, and no women voters... People who refused to "live with it" have done a lot of good.'  
'Definitely. Just because one person lacks the gumption to get off his or her lazy ass and do something to change the way things are doesn't mean that everyone has to do the same.' _Kurama wrote.

_  
'True. I'm not going to sit on my ass and watch the world go to hell around me just because someone else thinks that I have no right to say what I believe.'_

_'Exactly, Robyn. It's important for people to care. So much of the population is already apathetic to the plights of others... If you're poor, you're just lazy. If you're gay, you chose to be "that way". If you're overweight, you're an over-eating pig. They justify their discrimination when there IS NO JUSTIFICATION!"_

_  
_Kurama nodded, thinking that Jo's use of the Caps Lock button was more than suitable to convey the emphasis on the last three words, and typed his response. _'Very true. Often times, the poor stay that way because there is no other choice. The rich keep them down. And does it honestly matter if being gay is a choice? Does that truly justify killing someone or denying them the right to live as a human being? And a lot of people are overweight due to psychological disorders or genetic disorders.'_

_  
' Yeah, but people don't care about those things. All they see is the fact that a person is different than them, not that whoever they're mistreating has feelings and rights just like they do. They're blinded by their hatred, their passions are misdirected by the flow of mainstream society, and the end result is a bunch of dysfunctional zealots who think that above all they are RIGHT because only people like them are really people.'_

_'You know, I learned about that in Psychology. It's a lazy thing to do. You stereotype because you're too lazy to get to know the person behind the label. So you just assume they're a certain way because society says they are, and then if they ever act that way at all, it outshines anything else they do.'_

_  
_Kurama nodded again._ 'Yeah. Everything's so shallow, like nothing except the surface matters anymore... it's sad that people actually think like that. We're so advanced now, you'd think that more people would have learned to value others for who they really are, not what they think they really are.'_

_  
'You know, that even shows in other ways. Not to be childish or anything, but have you seen American cartoons lately?'_ Jo asked._ 'They used to be so layered, but now they're so flat and lifeless . . . It mirrors society.'_

_  
'And teaches kids to be flat and lifeless and conforming, as well.'_ Kurama wrote back._  
'Nobody thinks for themselves anymore. They've got all of their digital stuff to do it for them... what's the point in even existing if everything you do can be delegated to a machine?' _Robyn asked.

_  
'Back when I was a kid, everyone used to feel, "conform and be dull". I lived through the 80's, when everyone was trying to be original and different. I miss that. Every day you'd see something new . . .' _Kurama could almost feel the nostalgia in Jo's statement.

_  
'Couldn't tell you about that. I only caught the tail end of it.'_ Robyn said.

_'It's a shame things have changed since then.'_

_  
'Yeah. Now all the girls dress like whores. Nothing original about that... Oh, you missed some good times! And good TV. Revolutionary and all that, and very political, even in kid's shows. Now they're afraid.'_

_  
'Something needs to shake up the routine soon.' _Robyn commented.

_'You know what song this brings to mind? "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone". No one is taking risks or willing to be revolutionary. I want some cowboys or -girls, damnit.' _Jo said.

_  
'Being revolutionary means being different, and separating from the crowd in an extremely visible manner. Most people are afraid to do that anymore.' _Kurama pointed out.

_  
'Only because of the persecution. Hell, now you can be called un-American and be labelled a traitor. It's the Red Scare all over again.'_

_  
'I'd rather be a traitor than a sheep, though. Traitors get the good media slots, after all . . . sheep just get slaughtered.'_ Robyn wrote.

_  
'Yay, Letterman and his Bushisms of the day (even if he doesn't call them that).' _Kurama snickered, remembering the time he had convinced Jo to record a few shows that aired in the United States and send them to him in exchange for anime episodes. He had thought that it would improve his English skills, but he hadn't realized the insight they could give him on the culture as well._ 'Ever notice that if a celebrity says it, it's entertainment, but if anyone else does, it's un-American?'_

_  
_Kurama frowned. '_Wasn't there that thing about the Dixie Chicks and a comment they made about being ashamed that the President was Texan, though?'_

_  
'Yeah, but they're mainly played on country stations, so that doesn't count.' _Jo replied.

_  
'It doesn't really matter where they're played,'_ he retorted_. 'The fact that they're taken off of the air because of the sheep protesting their opinions . . . it's sad.'_

_  
'Also typical, sadly. I don't even remember what they said, but isn't it essentially what was found to be true later on?'_

There was a short pause before Robyn responded. _'__I don't remember either... it's been a while since it was making headlines, though.'_

_  
' Yeah. Of course, now they found that much of the data that led to the invasion of Iraq was fabricated. Weren't we saying that from the beginning?'_

_  
' I'm pretty sure of that.'_

_  
' You'd think they'd be a bit more careful when innocent lives are at stake, and take the time to verify their information before rushing headlong into something.' _Kurama shook his head. "Not that any of Makai's citizens actually bothered with any of that," he said to himself. Of course, most of Makai's citizens were anything _but_ innocent . . .

_  
'And I still refuse to call it a war. We haven't actually had a war since WWII. That's why it's called the Vietnam Conflict by the government.' _Jo wrote. '_Fat chance of them doing that, Kurama. Shrub just wanted to avenge the assassination attempt against his father . . .'_

_  
_Hiei chose that moment to reappear through the open window, wearing a rather pleased expression. "Are you still wasting your time with that thing?"

"Don't tell me you're jealous of my computer," Kurama teased, grinning as Hiei rolled his eyes. "Just let me finish this, and we'll get going.'

_'In any case,' _he wrote,_ 'it's been nice talking to you two, but I have plans for dinner with Hiei tonight. We'll chat again sometime?'  
'Of course.'_

_'I've got no complaints with that.'_

_'It was nice meeting you, Robyn,' _he typed.

_'Same. Enjoy yourselves!'_

_  
_Kurama grinned, doubting that they could do anything _but enjoy themselves. _'Definitely. _Konbanwa_.'__

_'_Konbanwa_, Kurama!'_ Jo said, seconds before he disconnected.

He turned to Hiei. "Shall we make this a night to remember, _koi?"_

"I think it'll make itself one to remember," Hiei said, smiling slightly. "Evenings out with you have a tendency of doing that."

Kurama laughed. "That they do."

*****

**Authors' notes: **The views and opinions expressed within this story are a reflection of the authors'. We are in no way saying that our personal opinions are right, but we are saying that everyone has a right to express their own opinions without fear of being censored. Also, we would like to thank anyone who has taken the time to read this story and listen to our opinions, even if you haven't taken the time to review this story yet.

Rose was wondering if the individual who contacted her over AIM to ask if we could do a chapter on transgender could please contact her again because she brain-farted your screen name. Anyone else who has suggestions for future chapters, please feel free to mention them to us.

Tora would like to express gratitude for the anonymous reviewer who inspired this chapter. Most people might live with the unfairness of the world, but we prefer trying to change things by making people more aware of them. It beats sitting back and being a sheep.


End file.
